Monday, 30 April 2012

Pinterest
is a cross between twitter, a bookmarking site and a global game of
show & tell. Users find interesting photos online and 'pin' them
to 'boards' (or save them into categories). Similar to Twitter, you can
select to 'follow' your friends but Pinterest also determines other
people that post similar content and add them to your feed as well. The
end result is a constant stream of photos of all different topics and
styles. Clicking on the photo takes you back to the website it came
from, so you may be checking out a million dollar kitchen followed by a
great rainbow layer cake recipe or weekend craft ideas with the kids.

For
the most part, the photos are high quality, and even if you're just
into looking at great inspiring photos, you'll get a lot out of the site
without ever pinning your own images.

It may seem a
little strange in concept, but it's very simple to work out, and before
you know it, you've spent 3 hours looking through all of the great
content.

Pinterest is NOT meant to compete with the
likes of Facebook or Twitter, and really doesn't provide a similar
function. Its main function seems to be providing an unlimited resource
of things that people like; including (but not limited to) cooking,
clothes, art, nostalgia, flowers, craft, cocktails, aspirational quotes,
unbelievable home renovation, as well as a slew innovative products and
portfolio pieces.

A Bit Of Background

Pinterest
started in early 2010, and although reaching 10,000 members within 9
months, it wasn't until an article in Time Magazine (Aug 2011) that it
started to gain a massive following. By December 2011 they were
averaging 11 million visits per week, and by January 2012 there were
almost 12 million unique users, making it the fastest site in history to
break the 10 million user mark, and as by March it was officially the
3rd largest social media network in the US.

It has
been reported that as many as 85% of users are female, and altough the
averages are slowly coming back towards even, the user base is still
heavily weighted by women which does prove to be a great targeted
demographic for marketing.

Appropriate Use

Although the
official rules are relatively unrestricted, they do have a Pin Etiquette
page which outlines their requested usage. This includes things like
being respectful, crediting your sources & user responsibility
for reporting questionable content.

It's important to
note that all content that you pin is public, so anybody can see your
activity - whether they're a member or not. There are no private boards,
so it's intended to be a truly social and open network - like twitter.

There
is ongoing discussion around the tone of the artwork being added by
businesses, whether it needs to have some level of artistic merit, or if
all is fair game. As noted, there's no rules that touch on the tone of
the content (beyond inappropriate content), but I think you'll find more
success if you produce artwork somewhere in the middle.

Content that has more of an artistic or high quality photographic element are more likely to be liked or re-pinned.

Getting The Most From Pinterest

The
genius thing that Pinterest have done is to integrate each action with
your favorite social network (Facebook or Twitter). Whenever you add
something new, like something of someone else or re-pin content, the
action is saved to your news feed. This means that the things you 'like'
are being exposed to your entire social group (and visa versa), as WELL
as random people that like similar things.

The way
these things generally trend, within year or so, Australia will
be well and truly on the Pinterest bandwagon. You will
want to be on early to be familiar with how it works, but it's more
important to be active. Just like
most social networks, content exposure is highest at the time of posting
(or pinning in this case). It's a bit of a chicken or the egg scenario,
but why not have a dominant presence ahead of your competitors.

In
terms of content suggestions for your business, there is an easy ways
to integrate with your website. If you set up a specific image that
represents your business you can add a 'pin it' button to your site.
Users clicking this button and they will see a popup with the image you
have made along with a pre-written message.

This can be great to add some viral component to a giveaway or promotion or just something new you want to get some wide exposure on.

Pinterest
is a free network, but is limited access in that if you want to just go
to the site and sign up, there's a 3-5 day wait for your account to be
approved. The quickest way to get instant membership is to be invited by
an existing member. This ensures that you start with at least 1 friend,
and the Pinterest network stays communal in nature.

If you would like an invitation, just give us a call or shoot us an email, and we will send over an invite. Feel free to chat
to us about how Pinterest could be a benefit to your business, and let
us know how you're using it in a new and interesting way.